Do the Howard Government's new industrial relations laws let bosses screw workers? If they do, the Government should be tossed out at the next election.
The unions say this is the case and they keep raising examples claiming they are right. One example they used was the alleged sacking of 29 meat workers at the Cowra Abattoir in early April. But the Government says the unions are wrong and the new laws are fair. What's the truth?
We know the unions hate the Howard Government so we can expect they will always claim the worst. Unions say the Government loves big business and not the little guy. However Howard has constantly won elections based on strong worker support. Why would he let business screw the workers who vote for him? Wouldn't this cause him to lose the next election?
It's hard to find the truth. But we now know what happened at Cowra.
It is true that 29 meat workers were sacked with redundancy packages and 20 were offered work on different conditions. Unions complained and ran a media blitz. The Government sent in inspectors from their new Office of Workplace Services. The inspectors recently issued a report.
According to the report, Cowra Abattoirs is in serious financial trouble and could possibly close. They have unprofitable pig and beef processing lines operating under different industrial agreements. Business is declining. They wanted to combine the operations into one line using another industrial agreement. It was legal to do this even under the old laws.
The unions said the workers were being discriminated against because of their union membership. The report says that according to the workers, they had not experienced any discrimination by the company.
Cowra Abattoirs put the men back to work under the old arrangements when the media story became hot. They have now done a deal with the unions on a new workplace agreement covering their pig, beef and mutton lines. Under the union agreement about six jobs will go. "Base" pay rates will be maintained. But it's not clear if the union agreement results in higher, lower or the same take home pay as before. One thing however is certain; if the abattoir does not control costs, it risks closing.
Now that most facts seem to be known, what conclusions can be drawn? Both the old and the new industrial relations laws are complicated. Like many companies, Cowra Abattoirs has had to choose between one of potentially four industrial agreements, all with different pay and conditions. And every agreement is legal. It's confusing.
Further, under the old and new laws companies are legally able to move workers from one agreement to another. The company did nothing wrong. Were the workers exploited? It's hard to say. It seems that if companies make changes without unions, the unions say the workers are being screwed. But if unions agree to the changes unions say it's OK.
The main reason unions are angry is that the new laws give them less legal power to control how companies operate. But does this mean workers are unprotected? Some say yes. However the Government has put a lot of money into the new inspection and prosecution service, the OWS. In the Cowra Abattoirs case the inspectors moved in the day after complaints were known.
In many respects the OWS is designed to do what unions used to do, stop worker exploitation.
A big test for the new laws will be how effective is the new inspection service. It can be said that the Howard Government has dramatically changed the industrial relations laws. But it's not fair to say they have created a worker exploitation free-for-all. Maybe some companies might have thought this could be the case but the new inspection service seems strong. Ultimately though the main test of the new laws is how well business interests are balanced with worker protections. If businesses can perform better because of the new laws, more jobs should be created.
About the only thing that appears certain is that we are going to have claims and counter claims for a long time. For the rest of us we will need to be sceptical of all sides and media hype. Mostly we will have to judge the new laws on how they affect each of us and our families and friends. That will be the most important test.
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